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MBCook

Have any other OEMs pulled back paid for features that previously worked on an EV?

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Not in an EV (well, maybe in their i* models) but BMW got a lot of flak for their various subscription announcements.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alistaircharlton/2020/07/02/bmw...

https://9to5mac.com/2019/12/04/bmw-will-no-longer-require-a-...

And I think there's a few others.

yeah, recently toyota: https://www.thedrive.com/news/43329/toyota-made-its-key-fob-...

Merc: https://www.thedrive.com/tech/41678/full-rear-wheel-steering...

but yeah, almost all carmakers make remote functionality a subscription. Usually with first 3-4y free of charge.

Toyota had to rescue themselves when they threatened to retroactively make remote start a subscription service

And to be clear it was keyfob based remote start they wanted to charge for, not app/internet based.

Are you sure? I heard the opposite - it was only the app/internet version and the keyfob continued to work.

https://www.thedrive.com/tech/43636/toyota-reviewing-key-fob...

Wow. I thought it was sketchy that they were charging to recoup (times a huge multiple) their minor server/bandwidth costs. Not that.

Ford disabled the MyFordMobile app in Fusion Energi and C-Max Energi vehicles because they were using old 3G modems as late as 2021 and AT&T decommed 3G in February. They had customers go into dealers to replace the modem at their own cost. MyFordMobile was a subscription-based app, though some owners had very long trial periods.

Tesla Norway fitted a 4G modem in my 2015 Model S unasked and free when the Norwegian telecoms providers started decommissioning 3G. They just tacked it on to the work order when I took the car in for some unrelated work.

Right. Tesla service has been good for a lot of people. I’ll take this while the hacker news Luddites try to find some euro car with manual windows they can “own”

Why are you hostile to the idea of owning what you paid for, and being against the never stopping train of companies who want to extract rent from you?

Because it’s a classic HN overreaction. Most of the cars sold today don’t have anything that would be remotely disabled. This thread literally started from someone being removed from a beta due to them being fired. It has nothing to do with Tesla disabling some paid feature.

It’s just classic HN FUD that pollutes literally any thread about anything car related. It’s tiring.

It's not uncommon hereabouts to be all in on the everything-as-a-service-and-customers-have-no-rights mindset. Which is fine, I guess, for a fart button app but I'm not so excited about it leaching into my critical infrastructure (software OR hardware).

Meanwhile, our nearby Ford dealer didn't even know when our service appointment was, didn't send a confirmation when I originally scheduled it, and forgot to tell me that the date I was scheduled for wouldn't work because they didn't have the part and that they would need to "hold the car" while waiting for it to arrive. Trying to find another dealer to schedule this with is a pain, because they all have different websites and use different schedulers.

Needless to say, we haven't replaced this modem yet, and I am now wanting more than ever to replace that car with another Tesla.

To be clear, there was not a "paid for feature" in this case. He did not lose anything he had paid for.

You have to have paid for FSD to be in the beta for FSD. I feel you could probably make a case that you paid to be in the beta.

Employees get it for free, no longer an employee, no more fsd. Edit: I see he was in fsd beta, maybe he can just try to get his score up high enough, everyone who’s in the beta had to have a high enough score that I imagine he bypassed as an employee.

Employees got FSD as a bonus after meeting certain work goals. They didn't (to my knowledge) get provision FSD before then. FSD has is a product, and one sold as a likely asset (robotaxis!) Its equivalent to a company trying to claw back vested RSUs

How do you know? We do know Tesla has offered FSD to employees for free, for quite some time.

https://www.bloombergquint.com/technology/tesla-enlists-empl...

>Any worker who buys a Tesla and agrees to share 300 to 400 hours of driving feedback with the company’s Autopilot team by the end of next year won’t have to pay for full self-driving -- an $8,000 saving -- or for a premium interior, which normally costs $5,000, Musk wrote.

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